Agricultural Waste Pulping in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

The paper industry in Nigeria has undergone serious travails as a result of the high dependence on imported inputs, most especially, long fibre pulp.  Thus, Nigeria depend extensively on paper importation.  As the nation is an agricultural country, it generates substantial volume of agricultural waste in all its ecological zones.  The waste can be a sustainable source of raw material for the nation’s pulp and paper industry.  The utilisation of agricultural waste as raw material for the paper industry had been going on in a number of countries that does not have sustainable supply of wood.  This practice will substantially assist the nation in eliminating the current import dependence of the paper industry to a reasonable extent.

Keywords: pulping, waste, kraft, soda, straw.